The invitation e-mailed to journalists offers no detail beyond the place and time (San Francisco’s Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Theater on Sept. 12 at 10 a.m. Pacific).

But the tag line — “It’s almost here” — and the fact that the shadow cast by the big “12” looks a lot like the number 5 strongly suggest that this is the event at which the new iPhone will be announced and that it will indeed be called the iPhone 5.